Talk:Michael Salu

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hmm ... this is pr copy! delete!  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.62.18.132 (talk) 09:50, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

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• Michael Salu at the Free Word Center, London November 2015.jpeg

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Request for Update: Recent Work and Publications (2019-2025)

COMPREHENSIVE TALK PAGE REQUEST FOR MICHAEL SALU WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE

Request for Major Update: Recent Work, Publications, and Exhibitions (2019-2025)

Hello Wikipedia editors,

I'm requesting substantial updates to the Michael Salu article, which currently focuses primarily on graphic design and art direction work from 2010-2014 and doesn't reflect the subject's significant evolution as an author, artist, and researcher over the past decade. As someone with a conflict of interest (this concerns me), I'm following proper procedure by requesting changes here rather than editing directly, per Wikipedia's COI guidelines.

The current article is significantly outdated and misrepresents the subject's current professional identity and major accomplishments. Below are proposed updates with extensive reliable, published sources.

PROPOSED UPDATES

1. OPENING PARAGRAPH - Updated Professional Description

Current opening focuses primarily on "British-Nigerian graphic designer and art director"

Proposed revision: Michael Salu is a British-Nigerian author, artist, filmmaker, editor, and creative director with an interdisciplinary practice. His work examines the impact of technology on language, culture, and cognition, particularly focusing on non-Western cultural representation in AI and digital technologies. He is the author of Red Earth (2023) and editor of Cybernetics, or Ghosts?: Stories from Myth to A.I. (2024).

Sources:

• Full Stop Magazine interview (2025): https://www.full-stop.net/2025/01/21/interviews/zach-peckham/michael-salu-part-i/
• The Photographers' Gallery bio: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/planetary-portals-i-am-your-dreams-you-are-not-mine
• Graywolf Lab: https://graywolflab.org/2025/03/19/michael-salu/
• Clot Magazine interview (2024): https://clotmag.com/interviews/michael-salu-on-cybernetics-or-ghosts-stories-from-myth-to-a-i-subtext-recordings-latest-literary-anthology

2. NEW SECTION: Literary Work

Published Books:

Red Earth (Calamari Archive, 2023) - A book combining prose, philosophy, and artistic research examining how non-Western cultures, particularly Yoruba cosmology, are represented in AI and digital technologies. The book converses with Dante's Divine Comedy, Yoruba metaphysics, and probabilistic computation to explore diasporic identity and alternative conceptions of time and morality in computational systems.

Sources:

• The Paris Review essay excerpt (October 17, 2023): https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/10/17/what-lies-beyond-the-red-earth/
• Publisher page: https://calamaripress.com/Red_Earth.htm
• Full Stop interview: https://www.full-stop.net/2025/01/21/interviews/zach-peckham/michael-salu-part-i/
• Gropius Bau performance: https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/gropius-bau/programm/artist-in-residence/pallavi-paul/veranstaltungen/listening-to-the-red-earth
• https://xraylitmag.com/david-kuhnlein-recommends-seven-books/interviews-reviews/

Cybernetics, or Ghosts?: Stories from Myth to A.I. (Subtext Books UK, 2024) - Editor of this anthology of fiction responding to Italo Calvino's 1967 essay "Cybernetics and Ghosts." The anthology features international writers reflecting on machine intelligence, storytelling, and the future of literature. The project includes a companion music compilation produced by Subtext Recordings.

Sources:

• Full Stop interview Parts I & II: https://www.full-stop.net/2025/01/21/interviews/zach-peckham/michael-salu-part-i/ and https://www.full-stop.net/2025/01/23/interviews/zach-peckham/geared-to-machine-as-metaphor-and-driver-an-interview-with-michael-salu-part-ii/
• Extract from Cleveland Review of Books: https://clereviewofbooks.com/from-cybernetics-or-ghosts/
• Clot Magazine interview: https://clotmag.com/interviews/michael-salu-on-cybernetics-or-ghosts-stories-from-myth-to-a-i-subtext-recordings-latest-literary-anthology
• Graywolf Lab: https://graywolflab.org/2025/03/19/michael-salu/

Publications in Literary Journals and Magazines: Salu's writing has appeared in multiple literary journals and publications including:

• The Paris Review (2023)
• Freeman's Journal
• Annulet: A Journal of Poetics
• Sleepingfish
• Catapult
• La Piccioletta Barca
• Wildness Journal
• Tools for Extinction, Lolli Editions

Sources:

• The Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/10/17/what-lies-beyond-the-red-earth/
• Graywolf Lab: https://graywolflab.org/2025/03/19/michael-salu/
• Annulet: A Journal of Poetics: https://annuletpoeticsjournal.com/MIchael-Salu-No-one-taught-me-how-to-play
• WritersMosaic: https://writersmosaic.org.uk/close-up/whose-a-i-is-this/
• Wildness Journal: https://readwildness.com/27/salu-idea
• https://www.picciolettabarca.com/posts/a-movement-in-chrome-primitive
• https://www.lollieditions.com/books/tools-for-extinction

Guest Editing:

• WritersMosaic magazine - Guest editor for "Cybernetics and Ghosts: Writing Under the Technological Influence" edition (2020s), which invited writers including cognitive neuroscientist Abeba Birhane to respond to Calvino's essay with flash fiction and critical essays.

Sources:

• WritersMosaic: https://writersmosaic.org.uk/category/limited-series/cybernetics-and-ghosts-a-response-to-italo-calvino/
• Full Stop interview: https://www.full-stop.net/2025/01/21/interviews/zach-peckham/michael-salu-part-i/

3. NEW SECTION: Artistic Research and Projects

The Red Earth Project (2019-present) An ongoing interdisciplinary artistic study examining how non-Western cultural heritage, knowledge systems, and practices are represented in Western data systems, virtual architectures, and AI technologies. The project uses machine learning translation to extract data from prose and create visual artworks including photography, virtual sculptures, 3D environments, and films. Central to the project is the question of whether computational translation can be used to engage alternative cosmologies beyond Western ontological frameworks.

Sources:

• Project website: https://theredearthproject.org
• Full Stop interview Parts I & II: https://www.full-stop.net/2025/01/21/interviews/zach-peckham/michael-salu-part-i/
• The Paris Review essay: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/10/17/what-lies-beyond-the-red-earth/
• Studio Hanniball exhibition (2021): https://www.studio-hanniball.de/artists/michael-salu/
• Flat Journal: https://flatjournal.com/work/red-earth/
• Archive of Forgetfulness online exhibition: https://www.goethe.de/ins/za/en/kul/dis/aof.html

Planetary Portals Research collective (with Kathryn Yusoff, Kerry Holden, and Casper Laing Ebbensgaard) examining archival photography, artificial intelligence, and colonial histories of extraction in southern Africa. The collective's work interrogates how diverse languages have been compressed into singular coding languages and questions whose voices are silenced in colonial archives.

Major Exhibition: "I am in your dreams, but you are not in mine" - The Photographers' Gallery, London (March 2025). The exhibition features single-shot films using generative AI and digital processes, crafted from archival photographs from the Papers of Cecil Rhodes at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. The work provides a "portal" for critically engaging with extractive logics of AI and exposes gaps in large language models.

Sources:

• The Photographers' Gallery: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/planetary-portals-i-am-your-dreams-you-are-not-mine
• Unthinking Photography online commission: https://unthinking.photography/projects/planetary-portals/
• Transmediale (Berlin, 2023) lecture-performance: Referenced at https://2023.transmediale.de/en/event/planetary-portals

House of Thought Founder and director of this artistic research practice and creative consultancy focused on cultural preservation in digital spaces, computational morality, cross-cultural technology adoption, and speculative futures design. The practice bridges creative and critical thinking with emerging technologies.

Sources:

• House of Thought website: https://houseofthought.io
• The Photographers' Gallery bio: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/planetary-portals-i-am-your-dreams-you-are-not-mine
• Clot Magazine: https://clotmag.com/interviews/michael-salu-on-cybernetics-or-ghosts-stories-from-myth-to-a-i-subtext-recordings-latest-literary-anthology

4. NEW SECTION: Selected Films and Moving Image Works

Diabolical Architectures of Colonialism (2023) Single-channel video, 42 minutes. This film examines colonial legacies of extraction and their relationship to contemporary digital technologies, using 3D software, game engines, and archival research.

Solitary Breath (2022) Single-channel video loop. Created as part of The Red Earth Project, the work blends prose, deep learning models, video, and 3D software to consider cross-cultural realities in virtual space, inspired by Yoruba mythology.

Sources:

• Clot Magazine: https://clotmag.com/interviews/michael-salu-on-cybernetics-or-ghosts-stories-from-myth-to-a-i-subtext-recordings-latest-literary-anthology
• Graywolf Lab (includes film stills): https://graywolflab.org/2025/03/19/michael-salu/
• Red Earth Project website: https://theredearthproject.org

5. EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES (Post-2019)

Major Solo and Group Exhibitions:

• "I am in your dreams, but you are not in mine" - The Photographers' Gallery, London (March 2025) [Planetary Portals collective]
• "Red Earth" - Studio Hanniball, Berlin (November 2021 - January 2022) - Solo exhibition examining computational translations between Western and non-Western ontology
• "Listening to the Red Earth" - Gropius Bau, Berlin (2023) - Performative reading as part of Pallavi Paul's Artist-in-Residence program
• Transmediale - Berlin (2023) - Lecture-performance with Planetary Portals collective

Sources:

• The Photographers' Gallery: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/planetary-portals-i-am-your-dreams-you-are-not-mine
• Studio Hanniball: https://www.studio-hanniball.de/artists/michael-salu/
• Gropius Bau: https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/gropius-bau/programm/artist-in-residence/pallavi-paul/veranstaltungen/listening-to-the-red-earth
• Transmediale reference: https://2023.transmediale.de/en/event/planetary-portals

6. ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENTS

Guest presentations and lectures:

• Princeton University - "Red Earth: Computational Translations Between Western and Non-Western Ontology"
• Various symposiums including 5x15

Contributions to academic curricula: Has contributed to art and media curricula at various academic institutions and held advisory roles.

Sources:

• Michael Salu website: https://michaelsalu.com/main
• Studio Hanniball: https://www.studio-hanniball.de/artists/michael-salu/
• 5x15 Amsterdam https://5x15amsterdam.com/

SUMMARY OF CHANGES NEEDED

The current Wikipedia article requires:

1. Updated lead paragraph reflecting current professional identity as author/artist/filmmaker/researcher and creative director rather than primarily graphic designer
2. New "Literary Work" section covering published books, essays, and editorial work
3. New "Artistic Research" section covering The Red Earth Project, Planetary Portals, and House of Thought
4. New "Films and Moving Image" section
5. Updated exhibitions section with recent major shows (2019-2025)
6. Current location (Berlin) and representation information
7. Academic engagements section

All proposed content is supported by reliable published sources including major cultural institutions (The Photographers' Gallery, Gropius Bau), established literary publications (The Paris Review, Full Stop), and reputable art/culture magazines (Clot Magazine). The subject has clear Wikipedia notability through:

• Published books with major reviews
• Exhibitions at notable institutions
• Extensive coverage in reliable sources
• Significant contributions to discourse on AI, technology, and literature

REFERENCES TO VERIFY

All sources are publicly accessible and verifiable:

Primary Literary Sources:

• The Paris Review (2023): https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/10/17/what-lies-beyond-the-red-earth/
• Full Stop Magazine Parts I & II (2025): https://www.full-stop.net/2025/01/21/interviews/zach-peckham/michael-salu-part-i/ and https://www.full-stop.net/2025/01/23/interviews/zach-peckham/geared-to-machine-as-metaphor-and-driver-an-interview-with-michael-salu-part-ii/
• Clot Magazine (2024): https://clotmag.com/interviews/michael-salu-on-cybernetics-or-ghosts-stories-from-myth-to-a-i-subtext-recordings-latest-literary-anthology

Major Cultural Institutions:

• The Photographers' Gallery: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/planetary-portals-i-am-your-dreams-you-are-not-mine
• Gropius Bau (Berliner Festspiele): https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/gropius-bau/programm/artist-in-residence/pallavi-paul/veranstaltungen/listening-to-the-red-earth
• Graywolf Lab: https://graywolflab.org/2025/03/19/michael-salu/

Publishers and Galleries:

• Calamari Archive: https://calamaripress.com/Red_Earth.htm
• Studio Hanniball: https://www.studio-hanniball.de/artists/michael-salu/

Literary Platforms:

• WritersMosaic: https://writersmosaic.org.uk/category/limited-series/cybernetics-and-ghosts-a-response-to-italo-calvino/
• Unthinking Photography: https://unthinking.photography/projects/planetary-portals/

Project Websites (for supporting basic facts):

• The Red Earth Project: https://theredearthproject.org
• House of Thought: https://houseofthought.io
• Michael Salu: https://michaelsalu.com

I appreciate editors' time in reviewing this request. The current article significantly misrepresents the subject's current work and accomplishments. All information is well-documented through reliable, independent sources. I'm happy to provide additional sources or clarification as needed.

Thank you for your consideration. Chromechild (talk) 13:16, 29 October 2025 (UTC)